How to make a mumu wearable

I love a good deal. I REALLY love a good deal. But sometimes the things I find on clearance are... not so good. So what do you do? You alter them, of course! Basic sewing skills are imperitive for the frugal fashionista.

Is it missing a button? Replace the buttons
Broken zipper? Replace the zipper
Too long? Hem it up
Gaudy excessive beading or embelishment? Remove it (I remember taking massive amounts of sequins off of a pink shrug once. My best friend loved it, but couldn't stand the sparkle. We ended up with sequins all over my apartment, but the shrug was much better after its alteration)

But what about those items that you love the fabric of, but the shape and style are really horrid?  That takes a little more effort to make work. 

I am a big time Ross shopper. I love getting great clothes and shoes at a discount. I'm not sure if everyones Ross has one, but mine always has a rack of Mumus near the dresses. Every time I go in, I peruse the mumu rack, oohing and aahing over the gorgeous fabrics, but frowning over the shapelessness of them.  On my last trip in, I caved and bought this little (giant) gem. It was on clearance for $6.49

Awesome, right? I especially love the giant sunburst centered on the tummy.  Very flattering. (please note the sarcasm).

But, I love the colors and the border, so I turned it into a cute belted top!

 



 

This was a pretty easy reconstruction.  Here's how it's done:

1. Buy awesome Mumu

 

2. Try on mumu, mark or pin where you want your waistline to end up.

 

3. Remove lines of stitching on sides of mumu that hold the two layers together.

 

4.Lay mumu flat on floor (or craft table if you are lucky enough to have one.)

 

5. Using chalk and a ruler, mark accross the mumu an inch or two below your waist mark. (the further below you cut, the more volume you will have on the top. You will need at the very minimum 1" seam allowance/ease. I recommend at least 2".)

 

6. Cut along the line you marked, being careful to not let the fabric shift around.

 

 7. Measure from the bottom, and mark a line at the length you want from waist to hem. I did 10", you can do more or less depending on the length you want. Don't forget to factor in 1/2" seam allowance.

 

8. Cut.  You should now have 2 pieces.

 

 

9. Using a serger or french seam, sew fronts together and backs together.  I used a french seam so I could add a drawstring tie to my top.

 

10.Sew sides back up leaving a few inches at  the bottom and generous armholes.

 

 

11. Add a  drawstring if you want, or a wide belt for  a chic look!

 

As always, feel free to ask me any questions!

 

 

Linking to Positively Splendid

and Blissful and Domestic

Straight Leg Jeans to Cropped Skinnies- A Tutorial

I'm not a slave to fashion trends, really, I'm not... And I'm a bigger girl, so I have to be careful with the trends I choose to represent.  I have been shunning the skinny jean trend since the beginning. They look amazing on thin people, but on curvy people? It's hit or miss.  I have been going through my clothes recently, in an attempt to put together some outfits for a trip to Reno NV in October.  The problem is, I'm pretty broke, so I have to work with what I have.

I had two pairs of these jeans. I think I bought them on clearance at Target. 

They are ok, but a little short for my taste. Anywho.
Start by trying on your jeans. pin them and tuck them to get a feel for how much fabric you want to remove. At this point you can mark with pins or chalk.  ** I used the inside seam since the outer seam had more distressing. use whichever seam of your jeans makes more sense to use. Some jeans have top stitched seams on the inside which would make it more difficult to recreate once you cut.**

Here is my pinned version. Pin and repin as often as you need to make it work. You only have to do one side, you can match the other side to the first.

Cut off the old hem to remove bulk. Now this next step with either make or break your jeans transformation. Flip your jeans inside out, and line up the seam that you are planning to cut. Using a long ruler, mark your cut line (don't forget to factor in a seam allowance!) start up higher than you think and blend down to the ankle. You want this seam to look natural and normal.

Mark- then cut. If you have a serger, this would be a great time to use it. otherwise, sew using a straight stitch on your regular machine and use some FrayCheck to keep the edges from fraying. Also surge the bottom hem so when you do hem the pants you won't have to fold over twice (this reduces bulk. If you do need to fold your hem up twice to hide the cut edge, you can use a hammer to pound the denim down before you sew.)

 

Hem your pants using a straight stitch and matching thread. As you can see in my pictures I used a light cream colored thread- I went back and colored the thread in with a blue fabric marker.

 

 

I'll try to post up some outfits using these jeans as a starting point. 

Dollar store finds

It's no secret folks, I love the dollar store. There is such a plethora of wonderful, weird, ugly, cool, awesome and sometimes useless stuff. And it's all $1. All of the fake flowers for my wedding came from the dollar store (used to decorate the pews in the church). And gift bags, bows, wrapping paper and ribbon I buy almost exclusively at dollar stores.  I even made a reuseable grocery bag from ugly tea towels I found at my local Dollar Tree.

This trip I was short on time so my finds are limited.

I found glitter!

 

Its fine and comes in a ton of colors. I don't use a lot of glitter, so this was a perfect amount for the small projects I do.

And I found this cute puppy... He was on clearance for 25cents!

 

He has a few paint imperfections, and I thought about repainting him, but from a distance you can't tell. I did take him off of his perch though.

And He has a new home on our TV stand next to a stack of vintage books!

Glasses Case- revamped!

I got new glasses yesterday. And by new glasses, I mean I have never worn glasses before, and they are COMPLETELY new to me.  I scored a great deal on frames online, and am totally thrilled with how my glasses look! I was not, however, thrilled with the case they sent with my glasses (honestly though, it was a free case, and I am not complaining!)

Here is the before: totally boring, plain blue plastic.

So I started by spray painting it silver:

And added some detail by covering it with a piece of lace, and spraypainting a coat of red.

Heres how it looks!



I thought it was still a little too plain, so using modpodge, I added some glitter to a few of the details and around the edge, once dry, add another layer of modpodge to seal.

So now the outside is pretty, how about the inside? using fabric, batting, thin cardboard and some hotglue, I made the inside both soft and pretty!

The bottom part also lifts up, leaving enough space to stash a cleaning cloth!

All finished, and ready for glasses!

Let's Go, Dodgers! A T-shirt quilt

I finally finished my most recent T-Shirt quilt!  I made it for a former boss, who is totally obsessed with the Dodgers! These are all shirts from her collection (no where near the whole collection though- that would have made a massive quilt!)

This is the first quilt I have ever finished with binding for the edge. It turned out ok, but not my favorite way to finish. I have another quilt in the works that requires a binding as well.

Gallery wall

Yesterday I posted a Decorated Cross that I made to add to my gallery wall. Well, here is the gallery wall!

This entire wall of art cost me less than $30!! Here's the breakdown:


1- clock, purchased at BigLots for $12
2-Picture of my in-siblings and niece, gift, $0
3- Painting by my husbands grandma, $0
4- Art my husband had $0
5- A framed card in a frame I had $0
6- A picture of my sister and I $-0
7- Signlanguage alphabet (made by me) in a frame purchased for $4
8- A drawing by my father, frame cost $6
9- Packaging from a Dickies shirt, frame cost $4
10- Decorated cross, $3
11- A drawing my husband had, $0
12- Wedding photo of my husbands parents, $0
13- Art from Thailand (souvenier from my uncle), $0
14- A painting by my best friend in a frame I had, $0
15- A painting I bought at goodwill for 50 cents!!! $.50

Here's a closeup of #7-

And a closeup of #5

Decorated Cross

I purchased this unfinished cross at Walmart for less than $3 to fill a hole in my gallery wall... ( yes, I have a gallery wall... I know how "trendy" they are, but I put one up to save money on decoration costs! I basically used as many pieces of artwork of mine and my husbands that I could find and suplemented those with some other inexpensive pieces and some that I made! Like this one...)

I painted it brown, and used mod podge to glue a thrifted map to the top layer. (The map was not a normal city map, and I'm not sure where it was for, but it had foreign sounding names. I bought two at goodwill for 99cents each!)

And I used some gold glitter glue around the outer edge to add some sparkle, and to help it pop a little.

Americana Trinket Shelf (or Junk Drawer Art)

Both my spare bedroom and bathroom are americana themed. The bedroom was easy to decorate, but the bathroom had me stumped. I had the red shower curtain, and some easy to sew decorated towels , but there wasn't much wall space to work with as far as hanging art. I purchased a small, unfinished trinket shelf at my local dollar store and painted it navy blue. And it sat waiting for inspiration  as to what to fill it with. My first thought was to make some tiny art squares to put in each space, but that didn't work out so well. So I dug through my stash of whimsies (read: junk) and pulled out as many red, white, silver and tan trinkets I could find. I used broken jewelry, old game peices, buttons, and other bits I had floating around. I started by arranging them in the squares and rearranging as needed to make them look nice, then I hot-glued them into place. Ta-da! Easy, and cute artwork for the bathroom! Total cost was $1.00 for the shelf, all the other materials I had on hand!

Here is is with the other small art piece my husband found for me at goodwill.

Ugly Tea Towels to Reusable bag

A few months ago I was wandering through my local Dollar Tree (one of my favorite stores!)  and stumbled upon some really fabulously ugly tea towels.

They called, no, screamed my name. I mean, who could pass up a pink tea towel with a strange soup print on it? I still can't get over how glorious and weird the print is. So there I was giggling to myself  in the middle of the aisle wondering what I could do with such a treasure. I bought 3. One I sent to my best friend, who was just as amused by its kitchyness, and the other two sat around for a while. I washed them.... and stared at them... and waited a few weeks for inspiration to hit me. those few weeks turned into months and then it hit me... a reuseable bag! Then I could strut my stuff at the grocery store with a little beauty made of odd soup print fabric.  I used another bag I had as a template, its basically two rectangles sewn together with the bottom corners squared up.

I added a piece of cardboard to the bottom for stability. 

Resizing a T-shirt: A Tutorial

T shirts are wardrobe staples. they come in all shapes, sizes, colors, fits and prints. but what happens when you have a tshirt that you LOVE, but its way too big, and seriously unflattering? You resize it! Give a more feminine fit to your boyfriend's old band shirts, the incredibly cool oversized thrift store find that you couldnt pass up, a plain clearance tshirt you found in the men's section at target for $1.61, or the big baggy work shirts you were issued on your first day, and happen to look terrible in. Heres how.

Go to your closet and find your favorite t shirt. the one that fits you like a dream,(the one thats getting a little holey, but you can't part with...) And your big shirts that need to be resized.

Lay your big shirt out on the floor (or table) making sure that it is smoothed out and seams are matching.

Lay your perfect shirt on top, lining up the shoulder seams.

Cut the larger shirt (through both layers) about 1/2 inch away from the seam of the smaller shirt.

Stop when you get to the end of the side seam.

Fold the sleeve back so you can see the curve of the arm hole. use as a guide to cut the arm hole.

Fold the shirt in half, matching at the neckline and cut the other side. save the sleeve pieces.

Match the sleeve hem of the smaller shirt to the sleeve of the larger. use the top of the sleeve as the guide- you will be cutting the bottom to make a new underarm seam.

Cut the larger sleeve using the smaller one as a guide. fold the smaller shirt back as needed to see the curve. Make sure to allow 1/2 inch seam allowance, just like you did for the body.

Now the fun part!

Sewing your shirt together:

Right sides together, pin your sleeve to the arm hole of the shirt, matching both ends and center. Strech slightly as needed.





Sew with a straight stitch and 1/2 inch seam allowance.

once both sleeves are sewn in, match up side seams, right sides together,  and pin.

Then sew sides seams together using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Turn shirt right side out, and wear it with pride!

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